When is the best time to exercise- Image courtesy Wikipedia Commons

When Is The Best Time To Exercise?

Everyone has their preference, and ideas as to when is the best time to exercise. Some like training first thing in the morning, others squeeze in their workouts around lunchtime while others train in the late evening or at night. The question remains however when is the best time to train and does the time that you train really matter in the first place. Well, the answer isn’t as clear cut as one might expect. Your body works in accordance with what are called circadian rhythms which operate in a cycle of just about twenty four and a half hours. Fluctuations in our core body temperature occur in conjunction with the passage of the day- rising and falling between approximately 97.5 and 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. (That’s 36.5 to 37.5 degrees Celsius for us on the metric system).

When Is The Best Time To Exercise- A Look At How Our Body Works

Our body clock as you might call it, is designed in such a way that it resets itself every day using light as a major frame of reference. It synchronizes both our moods and energy levels in a cyclical pattern based on the time of day. Upon waking for example, you will realize that your mental performance isn’t quite as sharp as it is after you have been up for a couple of hours- and no amount of coffee is going to do it for- it has to happen over time. This increase in mental acuity continues up to the early evening, at which point our ability to concentrate begins to decline. This pattern exists not only for our mental ability as everything from peak muscular performance, anaerobic power output and our overall motivation to train in the first place.

So When Is The Best Time To Exercise?

That being said, from a strictly scientific perspective the human body under normal circumstances is at its physical best from 4 pm to 7 pm. Sounds like a very clear cut answer to the question of when to train, except it isn’t. While it is true that our hormone levels peak in late afternoon, making muscles peak in terms of flexibility and power output, the increase in performance in the real world is very slight, as being the ever adaptive beings that we are, you can train yourself to perform at your best at any time. Several studies have found that when individuals are made to train only in the morning or only in the early evening (our theoretical peak time)  those that trained in the morning did better as a whole on physical performance tests early in the day while the evening trainers did better on their tests in the evening.

When Is The Best Time To Exercise? Anytime!

Exercise, like light and change in environmental temperature seems to also have a powerful effect on synchronizing our internal clock. So how does this apply to your training? Well if you have an event that will require you to be at your best, it would make sense that you time your training to coincide with the time of the event several weeks beforehand. Other than that, even though research shows that the ideal time to exercise is in the late afternoon, the advantages are slight and at the end of the day you will adapt anyway to whatever time you train.

From personal experience, I have trained both on morning and in the evenings (I do my leg workouts on Sunday mornings and the rest of my body during the week at around 6:30 pm or so as I have for the past decade and a half). Do I see any noticeable difference? Not at all, and with the poundages that I lift and the degree of intensity with which I train, any drop in performance would be very easily detected. The same applies for the hundreds of people I have trained over the years as well- although well over 95% of them do prefer to train in the evening. Is there a difference in the amount of bodyfat lost from training in the morning versus training in the evening? Again, my experience with my clients doesn’t show any difference whatseover and there is no real science behind it either.Practicality has to be taken into consideration before anything else, as if you are only able to train on mornings, then that is when you should train. The key to success in any athletic endeavor or quest for self improvement is consistency- perhaps the most powerful factor of all. So find a time when you can train that fits with your life and that you can stick with! Excelsior!

Kevin Richardson is one of the most sought after personal trainers in New York City and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts! You can get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here! Visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net

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